The Filberts Archives

Beekeeping, gardening and other musings.

May, what a month!

May, what a month!

I’ve meant to see in the month of may from the top of the Cerne Giant for a long time now.  This year I finally managed to and it was a gloriously random affair.  From this chaotic, raucous beginning the month has sprawled out in the same fashion.   All was a rush to...

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Removing a Honey Bee Colony

Removing a Honey Bee Colony

Although we don’t do many honey bee colony removals, Mark was pleased to be persuaded into taking this one. It was a whooper, with several buckets of honey and boxes of brood. Having located the queen, this strong, good natured colony was safely moved to our bee breeding unit.

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Helping Out Tired Bumblebees

Helping Out Tired Bumblebees

You may notice a few very large bumble bees flying about at this time of year. These queens bumblebees are occasionally caught out by the unpredictable weather in early spring. Read on to to find out what to do with an exhausted queen bumblebee at home…

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Beekeeping Courses in West Dorset

Beekeeping Courses in West Dorset

Know someone who's interested in having bees but doesn't know where to start?  Our half-day Beekeeping Introductory course makes a lovely gift. We're taking bookings now for courses in 2020. We had some great feed back this year with The Bee Intro Course proving...

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Colours of pollen

Colours of pollen

Pollen colour is one of the variables that affects the colour of our balms, salves, butters and polishes. Discover more about where your local bees are foraging with our new simple pollen guide, included in our Bee Garden Kit-in-a-card.

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Natural beeswax balms made in Dorset

Natural beeswax balms made in Dorset

Our balms, salves and butters are free from water and do not contain synthetic colourings or fragrances, artificial preservatives, parabens, phthalates or mineral oils. They are concentrated, nourishing oil-based blends.

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Beeswax food wraps

Beeswax food wraps

When it's cold outside, we like to spend a bit of time indoors experimenting with new products. Suzy has trialled and adapted our new kits for making beeswax food wraps. We've put together some clear instructions and you can make 3 wraps from each kit.  NEW Food Wrap...

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Lemon and Ginger in tea and lip balm

Lemon and Ginger in tea and lip balm

Time to look after yourself with some Lemon and ginger winter Tea - best made in a teapot, but if you haven't one to hand, make it in a jug covered with a small plate to keep the tea warm while it brews. Warm the pot or jug first, then add the Juice of one lemon, some...

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Athelhampton House Christmas Fair

Athelhampton House Christmas Fair

Getting ready for the Dorset Food & Drink Christmas Fair.  We have Dorset honey, beeswax candles, gifts for gardeners, "thank you" gifts for teachers, craft kits.  Beeswax balms and salves to protect against the winter weather ... come and join us.

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Surviving Apple Harvest

Surviving Apple Harvest

We’re about to start in the orchard on the last job of the year.  The bees are all fed and sorted for winter, so we turn our efforts to harvesting the cider apples.  Before we can get going, the barns have to be cleared and cleaned, the harvesting equipment repaired...

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Art at Filberts Barn

Art at Filberts Barn

Our resident artist Suzy Moger is once again bringing her paintings to Filberts Barn in Uploders. Dorset Arts Weeks span the last week of May and into the beginning of June and offer a great way to see Dorset and meet some interesting creative folk along the way. This year’s event is from 26th May to 10th June.

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William Barnes Night in West Dorset

Dorset poet William Barnes (1801-1886) is celebrated annually by a bunch of local enthusiasts. Held in a cider shed in the depths of West Dorset a group of idiosyncratic Westcountry folk spend an evening of music, food, cider, songs and poetry. The words of Barnes’ poetry is recited in the Dorset dialect of his era. Have a look of this little video of Mark doing his best wurzel…

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Twinways Wassail!

Twinways Wassail!

A peculiar orchard tradition with its routes in paganism comes alive each year at Twinways Orchard; we invited cider and orchard lovers to help us ward off evil spirits and to shore up our chances of a good apple yield later in the year.

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Bridport Open Studios comes to Filberts Barn

Bridport Open Studios comes to Filberts Barn

Filberts' Barn is transformed into a fab exhibition space this weekend as we host an Open Studio event. Bridport Open Studios is a West Dorset-wide event, which opens up many local artists' studios to the public. Suzy Moger is displaying a large collection of...

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Making a linocut for our new greetings cards

Making a linocut for our new greetings cards

Read how Suzy Moger, local painter and printmaker, designed the new Filberts Lino Print Greetings Card. From initial sketches, to carving the lino, and printing the final piece, here's Suzy's story of how it was made. We decided that a linocut would be a great place...

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